E-text prepared by Susan Skinner and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) ALLAN RAMSAY by OLIPHANT SMEATON Famous Scots Series Published by Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier Edinburgh and London The designs and ornaments of this volume are by Mr. Joseph Brown, and the printing from the press of Messrs. Morrison & Gibb, Edinburgh. TO DAVID MASSON, LL.D. EMERITUS-PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND ENGLISH LITERATURE IN EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED in grateful acknowledgment of kindly encouragement given in years long gone by, and of intellectual stimulus received from him by his former student THE AUTHOR PREFACE Since this Volume was in type, I have received some additional information which I feel constrained to lay before my readers. With reference to the Easy Club, I have been favoured, through the courtesy of the Rev. Dr. A. B. Grosart, with a sight of the complete Minutes of the Club. From them I observe that Ramsay was one of the earliest members admitted, and that his song 'Were I but a Prince or King' was formally presented to the Club after his admission not before, though its rough draft must have been shown to the members prior to that event. Next, as regards the Editions of _The Gentle Shepherd_, a valued correspondent, Mr. J. W. Scott, Dowanhill, Glasgow, kindly calls my attention to two 'Translations into English' of the Poem which appear to have hitherto escaped notice. These are '_Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd, translated into English by W. Ward, 8vo, 1785._' Ward, as Mr. Scott states, seems to have been a 'naturalised Englishman' residing at Musselburgh. Five years after Ward's production, appeared another, and in many respects a better Edition, to wit, '_The Gentle Shepherd, a Scotch Pastoral by Allan Ramsay, Attempted in English by Margaret Turner, London, 1790._' It was dedicated to the Prince of Wales, and its list of Subscribers contains the names of most of the nobility of Scotland. Is this not a reliable gauge of the popularity of the Poem? _EDINBURGH, March 1896._ CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I THE FAMILY TREE 9 CHAPTER II RAMSAY'S APPRENTICESHIP; A BURGESS OF THE TOWN--1701-7 23 CHAPTER III SCOTLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY; THE UNION; RAMSAY'S MARRIAGE--1707-12 28 CHAPTER IV THE EASY CLUB; EARLY POEMS; EDINBURGH OF LAST CENTURY--1712-16 41 CHAPTER V THE FAVOURITE OF THE 'FOUR 'OORS'; FROM WIGMAKER TO BOOKSELLER; THE QUARTO OF 1721--1717-21 56 CHAPTER VI RAMSAY AS AN EDITOR: _THE TEA-TABLE MISCELLANY_ AND _THE EVERGREEN_--1721-25 68 CHAPTER VII